Salt Spring Island Sailing Club celebrated its 50th anniversary in sailboat racing by holding a weekend regatta. Eighteen sailboats from the Salt Spring Sailing Club and the Sidney North Saanich Yacht Club competed. Sailors ranged in ages from teenagers to over 80.

The forecast for high winds and rain did not deter anyone from showing up at the skippers meeting Sunday morning. As one competitor said at the dinner to welcome SNSYC sailors the night before, “There are no bad days, just bad gear.”

As it it turned out the day saw much lighter-than-forecast winds and only one shower.

The two scheduled races had the fleet start at Second Sister, at the mouth of the harbour, circle around some local marks — Batt Rock, U60 near the Channel Islands, Horda Shoals and Welbury Spa — and finish back at Second Sister.

The fleet ranged from the very competitive boats, with full crews, such as local favorites Ogopogo from SISC and My Tai from SNSYC, to older cruisers single-handed by the likes of Tony Meek on Minke and Tim Amy on Hina. A system that “corrects” for the different types of boats and sails allows any sailboat with a PHRF-BC rating to compete, and possibly podium.

The first race called for a long beat against an uneven, faltering wind out to the Channel Islands, around Welbury Spar, and back to Second Sister. Race officer Richard Ballantyne wisely ended the race, and scored the boats as they crossed a hastily imposed finish line at Welbury Spar, in order to leave time for the second race to be started at 12:30 p.m.

The second race was designed to be shorter to accommodate the lighter than expected breezes. But, as usual when sailing in our waters, expect the unexpected. The breeze picked up, leading to a very competitive start, some good natured calling for room, and a quick, exciting race.

Ogopogo, skippered by Paul Faget and crewed by his wife April and three sailors from SISC’s junior program, prevailed over the My Tai (also with three junior sailors from their SNSYC club) in a double tie-breaker. The team event was won by Ogopogo, Radiant Heat, skippered by Tony Brogan, and Shingebiss, skippered by Gyle Keating.

]]>https://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/sports-recreation/regatta-marks-milestone/feed/0Local sailors on race to Alaskahttps://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/sports-recreation/local-sailors-on-race-to-alaska/
https://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/sports-recreation/local-sailors-on-race-to-alaska/#respondWed, 05 Jun 2019 17:46:04 +0000https://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/?p=61288A team of young sailors from the Gulf Islands are taking part in a 1,200-kilometre sailing race from Port Townsend, Wash to Ketchikan, Ala. McGuffin Brothers Racing, made up of twins Callum and Cianan McGuffin along with their older brother Finn and friend Duncan MacDonald, set off early on Monday, June 3 for the fifth […]]]>

A team of young sailors from the Gulf Islands are taking part in a 1,200-kilometre sailing race from Port Townsend, Wash to Ketchikan, Ala.

McGuffin Brothers Racing, made up of twins Callum and Cianan McGuffin along with their older brother Finn and friend Duncan MacDonald, set off early on Monday, June 3 for the fifth edition of the Race to Alaska. The event is “winner take all,” meaning the first team that arrives in Ketchikan gets a $10,000 USD cash prize. The second team gets a set of commemorative steak knives worth about $25. Besides a series of side bets that incentivize racers, all other finishers will come home with bragging rights.

“It’s a bit of an unusual race; you’re not allowed to have any motor in your boat at all,” said Callum McGuffin. “You can be human powered or sail powered, that’s all you’re allowed.”

The race is one of the longest such races in North America. Racers must be completely without help, and have to find their own route through the Inside Passage. Often, high winds and bad weather cause boats to drop out of the race. Racers spend much of their time alone, often without sleep.

The team is the youngest team in the event, with an aggregate age that is one-quarter of a year younger than their nearest competitor. Finn McGuffin is 23, Callum and Cianan are 19 and MacDonald is 16 years old. While the twins have spent considerable time on the water competing in sailing races across the coast, the other two members of the crew are relatively new to the sport. MacDonald hails from Wells, B.C., approximately 700 km from Vancouver, and started sailing around six months ago.

“It’s about as far away from the ocean as you could get,” MacDonald said. “I haven’t spent too much time on boats except for training with them, but I think it’ll be good.”

Traveling 1,200 km without a motor is a daunting task. The team will be sailing in a J/24 sailboat, which is 7.3 metres (24 feet) long. They will be using predominantly wind power to make their trek, but also have a human-powered propulsion system for when the wind stops.

“We got a pedal drive system, where we have a little pedestal set up on the side of the cockpit with a flexible driveshaft running to a propeller in the back,” Callum said. “When we’re pedalling hard, we can do around two knots on good days, 1.5 on bad days.”

During the race, the team will need to do all necessary repairs to their vessel, as well as keeping on top of all navigation, food supplies and anything else they may encounter. Despite the challenges, the team is confident in their abilities to finish in good time.

Once they reach Ketchikan, their journey will only be half over. Ketchikan is on a remote island in Alaska and the team will not have a ride home waiting for them. After arriving, they plan on turning back around and making the same trek home.

When asked what they plan on doing with the prize money if they win, the boys said they will use the money to buy a bigger boat. However, if they come home with steak knives, Cianan stands to benefit the most.

“I used to work as a meat cutter, so they said they would hire me back with extra pay if I got the steak knives. So there’s extra incentive.”

Those interested in following the race can do so using the live tracker at https://r2ak.com/.

For more on this story, see the June 5, 2019 issue of the Gulf Islands Driftwood newspaper, or subscribe online.

]]>https://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/sports-recreation/local-sailors-on-race-to-alaska/feed/0Salt Spring Sailing Club turns 50https://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/sports-recreation/salt-spring-sailing-club-turns-50/
https://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/sports-recreation/salt-spring-sailing-club-turns-50/#respondWed, 08 May 2019 16:00:00 +0000https://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/?p=60776SUBMITTED BY GREG SLAKOV The Salt Spring Island Sailing Club turned 50 this year and was celebrated in style on Sunday, May 5 on the water in Ganges Harbour and in the clubhouse at the foot of Douglas Street. You may have noticed the armada of about 40 or 50 sail and power boats milling […]]]>

SUBMITTED BY GREG SLAKOV

The Salt Spring Island Sailing Club turned 50 this year and was celebrated in style on Sunday, May 5 on the water in Ganges Harbour and in the clubhouse at the foot of Douglas Street.

You may have noticed the armada of about 40 or 50 sail and power boats milling about between the club and Goat Island before noon. The bagpipes celebrating the anniversary and the club’s first commodore, Lawrie Neish, could be heard all over the harbour as members marched from the docks up to the clubhouse for lunch. After lunch, 11 boats set out on a fun race from the club, up into the inner harbour near the Coast Guard dock, all the way out to a buoy near Prevost Island, and back.

Over 50 years ago, Lawrie and Aileen Neish started the ball rolling on what would become our local sailing club. They mentored students to build small sailing boats called Sabots in Lawrie’s shop at the school where he was the shop teacher. When the boats were made, the students learned to sail them, and as soon as they were sailing around together, they began to race. This was very successful and popular at the local level, but to race in formal regattas, one needs to belong to a sailing club. Hence the Salt Spring Island Sailing Club was born. For these services, and others too long to list, the Neishs received three rousing cheers from the entire club membership at Sunday’s lunch.

Several of the students who learned from the Neishs still live on the island, Karen Truscott and Rob Cannon among them. And true to its heritage, the club still teaches children and youth to sail and race during the summer in its very popular sailing school.

]]>https://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/sports-recreation/salt-spring-sailing-club-turns-50/feed/0Shifting winds and freighters make race excitinghttps://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/sports-recreation/shifty-winds-and-freighters-make-race-exciting/
https://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/sports-recreation/shifty-winds-and-freighters-make-race-exciting/#respondThu, 07 Mar 2019 21:20:07 +0000https://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/?p=59749By GREG SLAKOV The thought of sailboat racing in the middle of winter may seem strange to some, but throughout the winter a group of intrepid sailors from the Salt Spring Island Sailing Club meets every weekend or two to do just that. On Feb. 24, this stalwart group put on toques, fleece and long […]]]>

By GREG SLAKOV

The thought of sailboat racing in the middle of winter may seem strange to some, but throughout the winter a group of intrepid sailors from the Salt Spring Island Sailing Club meets every weekend or two to do just that.

On Feb. 24, this stalwart group put on toques, fleece and long underwear and enjoyed a lovely eight- to 10-knot northerly breeze, along with some welcome sunshine, to race to the Channel Islands and back.

Six boats took part in the race. There was a downwind start, with some of the keeners getting good starts right at the gun, notably Bob Jones on Oasis and Kevin Vine on Deryn Mor. The other boats were shorthanded, had sail handling issues, or simply decided to wait a couple of minutes to avoid the pressure of the start line.

The wind was quite shifty and puffy all day, requiring the crews to change course and alter sail trim constantly to wrest the best from the breeze. However, the wind never died, allowing the fleet to maintain good speed from the start to the finish of the 14.6-mile course.

One interesting component of the race was the very strong ebbing current, moving from north to south in Captain Passage. This required careful consideration, with boats trying to get into this current quickly on the way south, and attempting to stay out of it on the way back home.

Many islanders have noticed that Captain Passage now hosts anchored freighters more often. This was one of the first races where freighters affected the running of a race. First, an anchored ship close to the Salt Spring shore required consideration as it blocked the wind to leeward for at least 100 metres. More excitingly, a northbound freighter went between the boats in the fleet and caused Gyle Keating on Shingebiss to elect (in an act of self-preservation) to stay close to the Salt Spring side of the channel on the way home. Up close, these ships are intimidating, and when they are moving at speed, they are downright scary.

The race was tight for the lead boats all day long, with Shingebiss, Radiant Heat, Oasis and Sorcery in touch at most mark roundings. The first three boats finished within 10 minutes of each other. At the other end of the scale, fleet captain Greg Taylor finished almost two hours back after a few interesting episodes. Taylor is learning fast, illustrating how it is never too late to join in the great sport of sailboat racing. Even though the social gathering on Oasis had died down by the time Taylor finished, the crew of Shingebiss was still on their boat, and heartily invited Taylor aboard for a visit. Great fun was had by all.

A different type of scoring — similar to golf handicapping — was used in this race to make it even more fun for our diverse fleet of boats and skill levels and to invite new boats and crew members to join us. If an individual crew has a particularly good race compared to their typical race, they stand a very good chance of winning. In theory, all boats have a roughly equal chance.

]]>https://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/sports-recreation/shifty-winds-and-freighters-make-race-exciting/feed/0Islanders earn BC Games honourshttps://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/sports-recreation/islanders-earn-bc-games-honours/
https://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/sports-recreation/islanders-earn-bc-games-honours/#respondThu, 26 Jul 2018 16:34:34 +0000https://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/?p=57219Salt Spring athletes and coaches who participated in the 2018 BC Summer Games over the weekend were rewarded for their efforts. Over 2,300 athletes aged 11 to 18 from around the province competed at venues in the Cowichan Valley from July 20-22. Salt Spring sent baseball player Matty Schure, sailors Callum and Cianan McGuffin, and […]]]>

Salt Spring athletes and coaches who participated in the 2018 BC Summer Games over the weekend were rewarded for their efforts.

Over 2,300 athletes aged 11 to 18 from around the province competed at venues in the Cowichan Valley from July 20-22. Salt Spring sent baseball player Matty Schure, sailors Callum and Cianan McGuffin, and swimmer Debbie McNaughton. Jacky Cooper took head coaching duties in equestrian sports and Jane James was an equestrian official.

“It was really fun and really well organized,” McNaughton reported of her first BC Games experience.

McNaughton earned a silver medal and beat her personal best time in the Special Olympics 50-m backstroke event. She earned fourth-place finishes and beat her best times in her two other races. McNaughton will be headed to Antigonish, N.S. to compete in Special Olympics national competitions this weekend.

Hanging out with the other athletes and meeting some of the people who will be going to nationals was a highlight of the weekend for McNaughton, who has been swimming competitively for four years.

“I like it because I’ve always really loved swimming,” McNaughton said about her reason for competing. “And I like the friendly aspect of it. Everyone is really supportive and cheers everybody on.”

McNaughton’s teammate Dawn Hadler will also be going to Nova Scotia for the national event.

Cooper has participated at many BC Summer Games in the past and this time was responsible for Zone 7, coaching three girls from Terrace.

“It’s giving back to your sport, and I love working with kids,” Cooper said.

Her team included the youngest rider in her division, an 11-year-old who completed two dressage tests and a musical free-style. Of the two 15-year-olds on the team, one received two gold medals and one silver, while the other rider received a personal high score.

The McGuffins earned a bronze medal in the Boys/Girls 420 sailing event with Callum as skipper and twin brother Cianan as crew.

Callum said one of the things he enjoyed about the BC Summer Games was meeting all the athletes from other sports — something they don’t usually get to do at sailing regattas. The venue at Maple Bay was also good, and had ideal weather with sunny skies and winds of 10 knots.

“The racing was quite hard because we were racing some of the best teams in B.C., McGuffin said. “It was a really hard competition.”

The team is fairly happy with their bronze medal, although McGuffin believes they probably could have advanced one or two places if they had put more attention on the rest of the fleet and less on the race course itself.

“We’re also just seeing that as a really good experience, just seeing how much mindset affects performance,” he said.

The pair competed at the Sail Canada National Youth Championships in Nova Scotia last summer and are now preparing to move up to a new class. After they compete at the provincial 420 Championship Regatta in Comox this weekend, the McGuffins will be replacing their current sailing dinghy with a 49er — an Olympic-class racing vessel described as “the world’s fastest one design non-foiling double-handed monohull.”

“It can do 20 knots downwind, so it’s pretty fun,” McGuffin said.

For more on this story, see the July 25, 2018 issue of the Gulf Islands Driftwood newspaper, or subscribe online.

All types and sizes of boats from the Pacific Northwest participate in the 42-nautical mile event, says race chair Pete McGovern: “From small sports boats to fast ocean going vessels that have competed in the Vic-Maui race to cruising and club racing sailboats.”

Boats are split into six or seven divisions with five-minute staggered starts, he said, beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 19 from Ganges Harbour.

For those interested in viewing the race, the race direction will be posted on the race website at www.roundsaltspring.ca and Facebook page once it has been announced. The best viewing points are at Beddis Beach Ruckle Park, Vesuvius, Southey Point and Fernwood Dock.

Assuming some wind comes up during the race, faster boats can be expected to begin returning to the harbour in the early evening, while stragglers may be struggling to make it back by the cut-off time of 10.30 a.m. on Sunday morning in time for the Lions Club pancake breakfast and prize giving.